A Bologna councillor has caused a stir by proposing that prostitution be allowed to "rotate" around set districts of the city but mayors in other cities say they're interested in the idea.
Bologna Institutional Affairs Councillor Libero Mancuso believes concentrating the sex trade in certain areas will make it easier for police to control crimes linked to it.
He argued it would make it easier for the city's social and health services to assist the prostitutes too.
Mancuso said he will put the proposal to Bologna centre-left Mayor Sergio Cofferati in September.
"If we can't wipe out prostitution, let's at least try to manage it," Mancuso explained.
The idea has drawn fire from councillors in Bologna and in other parts of Italy.
"Prostitution should be fought in a radical way and I don't think it's useful to create red-light zones," said Naples Executive Councillor Gennaro Mola.
"We would end up liberating some areas and turning others into ghettoes".
Mancuso counters that his proposal would not create ghettoes, because the rotation system would stop the areas used becoming full-blown red-light districts.
He said he was surprised at the furore his proposal had caused, in part because a similar system is being experimented in the city of Mestre, near Venice.
Curiously, Mancuso has won the support of the conservative Mayor of Catania Umberto Scapagnini, a member of former premier Silvio Berlusconi's Forza Italia party.
"The sex trade is a tragic reality common to many cities in our country that needs serious regulation," said Scapagnini.
"Creating safe places, which are controlled in terms of hygiene and security, would stop women being continually exploited and would make it possible for security regulations to be respected".
The Vatican and Interior Minister Giuliano Amato have said Italy should consider following Sweden's lead and target clients instead of prostitutes.
Under a law passed in 1999, loitering or soliciting clients is not a crime in Sweden, but paying for sex on or off the street is. Since the law was introduced, the number of women involved in street prostitution there has declined.
The northern town of Alessandria moved in this direction on Friday by introducing stiffer fines for curb-crawlers.
At the moment only the exploitation of prostitution -pimping - is a criminal offence in Italy.
